Advisory Board

Professor Dorothy Roberts is the 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Departments of Africana Studies and Sociology and the Law School, where she is the inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights.

She is also the founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society and a 2024 MacArthur Fellow. An internationally acclaimed scholar, public intellectual, and social justice activist, she has written and lectured extensively on race, gender, and class inequities in U.S. institutions and has been a leader in transforming public thinking and policy on reproductive freedom, child welfare, and bioethics. She is the author of the award-winning Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (Pantheon, 1997/Vintage, 2017); Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (Basic Books, 2001); Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century (The New Press, 2011), and Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World (Basic Books, 2022), as well as more than 100 articles and book chapters, including “Race” in the 1619 Project book. Her latest book, The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family, was published by One Signal/Atria in February 2026. Additional recognitions of her work include elections to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Medicine; Rutgers University-Newark Honorary Doctor of Law Degree; Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Honorary Doctor of Science Degree; Juvenile Law Center Leadership Prize; Hastings Center Founder’s Award; Society of Family Planning Lifetime Achievement Award; and American Psychiatric Association Solomon Carter Fuller Award.

Terence’s journey didn’t always look so linear. At a young age, Terence met the foster care system face to face. Bounced from home to home for no reason other than being driven deeper into anxiety, unaware of what and who would come next. Terence didn’t let his experience in the foster care system shadow the impact he would have on young men in similar situations 20 years later. Now, through Galaxy Swimming, he is continuing to give back to his community.

He is involved in community social work practice in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood and has worked on several national policy research initiatives related to poor families, their employment, family formation, and receipt of public assistance. His publications include “Social Work with Families after PRWORA: Family Systems and Rational Choice Models,” “Relational Discord and Depressive Symptomatology among Non-Marital Co-Parents,” “Using Geographical Information Systems to Enhance Community-Based Child Welfare Services,” “Young Nonresidential Fathers Have Lower Earnings: Implications for Increasing Child Support Payments,” and “Using the Criminal Justice System to Prevent Adolescent Drug Abuse.”

Dr. Robertson has taught research methodology and human behavior courses. He previously taught at the Hunter School of Social Work, where he developed the school’s community organization field placement program, and at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. He has also worked with newly released federal inmates as they return to family, employment, and their communities. Dr. Robertson holds a BA in Economics from St. John’s College, University of Manitoba; an MSW from Rutgers University; and a PhD in Labor Economics and Social Policy from the Columbia School of Social Work.

Her mission in life is to help marginalized communities and develop solutions to advance justice for people, animals, and our planet. As a native New Yorker and law student, I’m eager to learn how to better serve the people of New York City.

I’m committed to public defense work centering on family integrity; family reunification and preservation, and supporting families before, during, and after family police investigations. My interests also include criminal defense and tenant defense.

Shrounda’s child welfare experience birthed an advocate seeking to destigmatize parents and move toward a system that empowers and values parents as partners. Shrounda’s work prioritizes marginalized and disenfranchised families and relentlessly pursues policy change and system reform toward preserving and strengthening families. She has a keen understanding of change agents’ power, the impacts and barriers of policies, and the overall importance of personal and societal transformation.

Shrounda has extensive work experience with the King County Parents for Parents Program, Washington State Office Public Defense’s Parent Representation Program, and other programs such as the Perinatal Treatment Services and the University of Washington Fetal Alcohol Drug Unit Parent-Child Assistance Program.

Shrounda is the recipient of the 2021 Casey Excellence for Child Award and the 2021 Unsung Hero Award by the Department of Children, Youth, and Family Strengthening Families in partnership with Seattle Child. She is also a member of the Washington State Parent Ally Committee, a founding member of the Birth Parent National Network, Executive Board member of Family Treatment Court of King County, the Co-Chair of the Department of Children, Youth and Families Oversight Board, a national consultant for Casey Families and the Children’s Trust Fund serving multiple jurisdictions across the United States. She provides a parent lived experience on the state, local and national platforms, all in pursuit of justice and family preservation.

Terence’s journey didn’t always look so linear. At a young age, Terence met the foster care system face to face. Bounced from home to home for no reason other than being driven deeper into anxiety, unaware of what and who would come next. Terence didn’t let his experience in the foster care system shadow the impact he would have on young men in similar situations 20 years later. Now, through Galaxy Swimming, he is continuing to give back to his community. and D